106 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
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date: 2014-05-10
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title: Home-made Energy Bars
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category: cycling
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Thumbail: https://i.imgur.com/RUF1L6e.jpg
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---
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A break from computing today and into the world of nutrition. Cyclists
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love to talk about nutrition as the nature of our sport makes it a major
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consideration. I do not really know of any other sport where your fuel
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gives out before the rest of your body.
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This means that cycling nutrition is big business, and expensive. A
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typical box of energy bars will cost about 1 euro a bar from a big box
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pusher, more from your LBS. To that end (as I like baking) I decided to
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make my own.
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# Ingredients
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There is not much to it:
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- 200g sugar
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- 120ml oil
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- 2 tablespoons honey
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- 225g porridge oats
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- 250g fruit/nut mix
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Obviously the quality of these ingredients is all important. With the
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amount you are saving compared to a commercial bar, one can afford to
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splash out here. I use:
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- Unrefined sugar
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- Good quality sunflower oil
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- Organic honey from a local producer
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- Good quality, thick rolled oats
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For the fruit and nut mix you can do whatever you want. We eat a lot of
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these and get them from a local organic produce shop. I just raid the
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kitchen draws and see what I come up with. The latest batch had:
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- dried banana
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- raisins
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- sultanas
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- coconut
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- cranberries
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# Recipe
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You will need a decent sized saucepan as you\'ll do all the mixing on
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the hob. Pre-heat the oven to 180ᵒC (350ᵒF/gas mark 4 I believe).
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Start by gently melting together the sugar, oil and honey over a low
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heat. Be patient, this will take a while.
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Add you fruit/nut mix and mix it all in thouroughly. At this point you
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will need enormous will power as the mixture is delicious and you may
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find yourself eating it all there and then. This will make you feel
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rather ill (trust me).
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Finally, add the oats a little bit at a time. It is very important to
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take your time over this. The mixture gets really thick and heavy, which
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may be too much for your puny cyclist arms. If you can find a way to
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stir it with your super-mega strong cyclist legs please tell me in the
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comments. If not, just ask your wife/mother/mother-in-law/child to help.
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Once all that is nicly mixed together transfer it to a tin lined with
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baking paper (25cm x 15cm should be a good size). Make sure it is firmly
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pressed down with a metal fork. If not the bar will come apart in your
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pocket (messy).
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Put in the oven for about 15 minutes. When it is nicely golden, take it
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out and leave it to cool before cutting it up. I find this makes 25-30
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small bars (\~23-50g each), but your mileage may vary.
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# Nutritional Information
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Of course, this being a geeky blog I had to do some maths and
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comparisons. Note that this is all calculated from the information on
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the packets and searching on the internet. I am an engineer, not a
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nutritionist so do not take this as gospel.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Bar weight Energy Protein Fat
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(g) (kcal) (g) (g)
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- -------- --------- -----
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Mine \~25-30 134 1.2 6.1
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[SiS 55 223 20 6.4
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Rego](https://www.scienceinsport.com/sis-products/sis-rego-range/sis-rego-protein/sis-rego-protein-bar-choc-peanut-55g/)
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[High5 Energy Bar](https://highfive.co.uk/product/energy/energybar) 60 194 3 2
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Mine do not do too badly. Not that both those commercial options have
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more everything, but they are also much bigger. Two of my bars would
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beat both of them hands down in all 3 of those measures. It should also
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be noted that all the fat in these come from the oil and the oats, which
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is \"healthy fat\" according to High 5.
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Like I said, I am an engineer, not a nutritionist. Do not take this as
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nutritional advise, rather as me sharing something I find works for me.
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Feel free to use this, but please share your modifications. In fact you
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are legally obliged to because it is under the [Creative Commons
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Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) :-).
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